Sunday October 16, 2016

I used to think that Xbox fared terribly in Japan simply because they didn’t want to see an American console do well, but I guess that is irrational based on the success that many US brands do manage to find over there. Spencer thinks the Xbox just needs Japanese franchises, but I think the key is to bring out the really weird stuff, like pigeon dating simulators and anime karaoke.

Japanese people prefer to play games made in Japan, primarily role-playing games, visual novels, and just about anything Nintendo puts out. They don't like shooters. This is a mystery to no one, including Phil Spencer himself who gives his two spence (no applause, please): "I feel that a lot of the games are not games that the Japanese public would play." Spencer admits they tried to boost sales for the Xbox 360 with exclusives like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, which did sell well. Even the huge franchise Idolmaster had its first two major console titles exclusive to Xbox 360. Similarly with this generation, Microsoft reached out to major Japanese developers like Keiji Inafune and Hideki Kamiya to bring ReCore and Scalebound, respectively, exclusively to Xbox One.